Sometimes theme just wins out. A publisher manages to snag a beloved license and it will immediately draw you in. You are hooked and you haven’t even found out about the game play yet. As long as the game is not a cheap, licensed tie-in just try to make a quick buck, this is almost always a recipe for success. Our newest Kickstarter of the Week is a love letter to one of my favorite games growing up, Mega Man. Jasco Games, publishers of the Universal Fighting System CCG, have taken the essence of this beloved video game franchise and created a table top experience around it. Did they succeed?
From the Kickstarter Page:
Mega Man the Board Game is a 2-8 player “Side Scrolling” board game. Our team wanted to develop a game that has both the feeling of a single player Mega Man game and the excitement and interaction of a party game. After years of testing the game mechanics, we found a way to capture the experience of playing a Mega Man game while adding a new element unique to our board game: players will both control their character and, for the first time, control Dr. Wily’s forces as you impede the progress of other players.
Every player at the table will have a character that they have chosen to start the game. After determining who will go first, players will choose the Robot Master’s stage that they wish to start the game on. When it is your turn, you will flip over the challenge token that is laying down on the first hex of your stage, revealing your challenges. You will choose a challenge from the token, and play cards from your hand and abilities from your character to blast, jump or run your way through the challenge. Your opponents around the table will also be playing cards from the Dr. Wily side of their hand to make your challenge more difficult, and possibly do damage or take lives from you along the way. If you beat the challenge you will get to move forward on the stage a number of spaces determined by the challenge you defeated.
In addition to having some interesting game play mechanics, the game’s pieces just look outstanding. Sculpted minis (that will be colored if their funding gets high enough) and comic style artwork dominate this game’s components. I am really looking forward to checking this game out when it’s published. If you want to become a backer, pledge levels start at $70 for just the game and expect to drop at least $140 if you want the deluxe package with stretch goals included. The game is scheduled to be in backers hands in October of 2014 and you have until Sunday Jan 19th to become a backer. So head over today if you want to start your new year off with a little Mega Man!
